An opposition group led by Gen David Sejusa is claiming that the recent killing of civilians in Bundibugyo, Kasese and Ntoroko Districts in Western Uganda were carried out on the orders of the Ugandan leader Gen Yoweri Museveni, and his police chief Gen Kalekyezi Kayihura.

In a statement issued this evening, the Coalition of Liberation Forces (CLF) whose Chairman is Gen. Sejusa said it has credible information which it says it will provide at a later date, that President Museveni and Gen Kayihura were responsible for the murders of innocent Ugandans killed after military and police posts in these districts were attacked by forces opposed to the Ugandan leader.

The statement, a copy of which was emailed to The London Evening Post, goes on to say after the attack, forces deployed by Museveni, Kayihura and Brig Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the president’s son, attacked innocent civilians to avenge the attack. It said bodies of those killed were hurriedly picked up by government soldiers who eventually buried them in mass graves using Caterpillar tractors to dig the graves.

Speaking out on the attacks that took place early this month, Gen Museveni acknowledged that “a group of people in the Rwenzori region carried out coordinated attacks against security forces and civilians”. He added that eight members of the security forces were killed as well as 51 of the attackers. The attackers, claimed the Ugandan leader, had captured a variety of weapons from police and military barracks.

But the CLF statement signed by the group’s Director of Operations Committee Capt Ephraim Kabuleta, seems to suggest that the attackers went away with several weapons and that the killings after the attack were carried out on orders of Museveni, Kayihura and Muhoozi. It further claimed that some of the victims hastily buried by the government during a night operation, had been tortured. “It is important for all Ugandans to know that those killed and buried in mass graves were not the anti-regime attackers, who launched operations on military and police infrastructures in a targeted manner. The dead were totally innocent people,” the statement said.

The CLF further claims that those killed were civilians who had run to army and police barracks seeking protection after the sudden attack carried out by unknown militants. It also claimed that another group of civilians had been killed by “a contingent of Special Forces Command soldiers who were deployed immediately after the attack. These were under the command of a major and two captains”. “So when you hear Mr Museveni saying that the attackers attacked Lakwena style. It is a lie because these were civilians seeking protection,” Dr. Kabuleta’s statement says.

Warning of further attacks soon on the military and police installations in the country, “this time not in Bundibugyo”, Dr Kabuleta advised Ugandans to be wary of a government misinformation campaign. “You will remember that FREE UGANDA chairman had just warned about government intention to kill innocent people to scare them from supporting the rebellion. Unfortunately for government, it is having the reverse effect. Anger and revulsion.”